OTRs’ Perspective on the Factors for Accepting or Declining Level II Fieldwork Students: A Mixed-Methods Pilot Study

Level II fieldwork is when occupational therapy students are able to experience the roles and responsibilities of delivering occupational therapy services. Level II fieldwork placement bridges the gap of being a student to a practicing clinician. With the profession of occupational therapy increasing rapidly, there is difficulty in finding site placements for occupational therapy students. The purpose of our study was to determine the factors that influence an occupational therapist’s decision to accept or decline supervising a level II fieldwork student. Using a mixed-methods study, a survey was sent out to 1,000 occupational therapists found within the MiOTA database and the MSOT fieldwork contact database at Davenport University. Snowball sampling was used to encourage occupational therapists to pass along the survey to other clinicians. The quantitative data from the survey was analyzed using Excel software. The qualitative data was coded and themes were extracted through triangulation. The factors that determined an occupational therapist’s decision to decline a level II fieldwork student included age of the occupational therapist, the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict in schedules and student unpreparedness. The factors that determined an occupational therapist’s decision to accept a level II fieldwork student included OT advocacy, availability in their schedules, student interest in practice setting, and adequate student preparation. This study not only provided insight on the fieldwork shortage for level II fieldwork students, but will also assist fieldwork coordinators when locating placements. This proposal is important to practice because fieldwork is highly important to an occupational therapy students education. This study shows some of the reasons that there is shortage of fieldwork placements for occupational therapy students. By completing this study it gives a look as to why there is a shortage of fieldwork placements and will allow fieldwork coordinators to find solutions to these shortages. This will allow the occupational therapy profession to grow.

References

Bonsaksen, T., Anne-Stine Dolva, Horghagen, S., Sveen, U., Hagby, C., & Arntzen, C. (2019). Community-working occupational therapists serving as fieldwork supervisors: Characteristics and associated factors. The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy, 7(3), 1–8. http://dx.doi.org/10.15453/2168-6408.1627

Patterson, B., & D’Amico, M. (2020). What does the evidence say about a student, fieldwork educator, and new occupational therapy practitioner perceptions of successful level II fieldwork and transition to practice? A scoping review. Journal of Occupational Therapy Education, 4(2).